I spent time with TCL’s new Note A1 Nxtpaper, and the headline is this: writing on this thing feels amazing. TCL is framing this as a pen-first notebook that can also double for e-books, and in my hands-on, the high-refresh color display mixed with tuned friction made digital ink feel like a good ballpoint. It is a direct jab at Amazon’s Kindle Scribe lineup and the color-friendly e-note crowd from Onyx Boox and Kobo.
The Note A1 Nxtpaper is scheduled to sell with 256GB for $549, including the T-Pen Pro stylus on board. TCL isn’t pushing its tablet to be an all-purpose do-anything device but rather one that does the core task of writing, sketching, and organizing ideas much better than if you were navigating a full-bore app marketplace.
- Design and hardware impressions after hands-on time
- Pen and writing experience on the Note A1 Nxtpaper
- Screen and software focus on notes over media apps
- How it stacks up against leading e-ink tablet rivals
- Price, availability, and overall value proposition
- Early takeaway: a focused, pen-first note-taking slate
Design and hardware impressions after hands-on time
Half the footprint of a standard iPad and only 0.22 inches thick, the Note A1 Nxtpaper is a slim slab of aluminum and glass. The frame is thin, the screen is flush to it, and a wide left side sits nicely in your hand. Underneath, TCL has smartly hidden a multi-function home key there: one tap gets you to the home screen, two taps serve up a new note, and holding it down starts voice recording.
- One tap: Go to the home screen
- Two taps: Create a new note
- Press and hold: Start voice recording
Ports and placement all make sense here — USB-C on the bottom, power up top to charge from an external battery or wall charger, a tiny rear camera in one corner, and four small raised nubs on the back that keep it steady when on a desk.
The stylus magnetically attaches to the right edge with enough force that it doesn’t plummet off when you drop your bag, according to my demo — who was minding the display, so we couldn’t test (drop) the mechanism/case again.
Pen and writing experience on the Note A1 Nxtpaper
The only thing that feels a little non-premium compared to the tablet is the T-Pen Pro. It has a slightly grainy-feeling plastic barrel, but it features a side button for secondary actions and comes with a hard-plastic eraser cap. Where my nitpicking comes to a halt is with the inking performance: lines show up immediately, curves are tracked accurately, and surface friction feels like “ballpoint pen on smooth paper” rather than that scratchy pencil feel you get from some artists.
This fluidity isn’t a mystery. The company’s Nxtpaper panel supports refresh rates of up to 120Hz, which, with tuned touch sampling and palm rejection, ensures you can put your hand on the panel without causing ink squiggles or latency. Erasure with the cap is a different feel than a rubber eraser, but it’s quick and clean. The general rhythm — think, jot, erase, repeat — feels natural enough for me to stop thinking about the tool and start thinking about the ideas. That’s the sign of a good note-taker.
Screen and software focus on notes over media apps
The 11.5-inch matte display is bright and glare-resistant but tuned to show off nuanced color without shouting at your pupils. The UI is kind of black and white, as it were, to maintain focus on notes, but the panel can show more than 16 million hues, which proves handy when reading colored PDFs or checking out charts or comics. Do not expect streaming tasks here — this is not a media tablet, and TCL does not market it as such.
It’s Android inside, sort of — but no Google Play Store. It’s intentional; TCL put together a workspace that is dedicated to working quickly, with easy note creation, flexible formatting tools, handwriting search, and basic AI assistants for summarizing or tidying up messy pages. The productivity extras are utilitarian — calendar and email panes, plus cloud sync hooks for Microsoft OneDrive and Google Drive — because your notebooks aren’t stuck on the device.
How it stacks up against leading e-ink tablet rivals
Compared with the Amazon Kindle Scribe Color and Onyx Boox Note Air 4 C, TCL’s most obvious advantage is responsiveness. High-refresh Nxtpaper eats up the ink and all its accompanying delays as it scrolls itself smoothly, even tiny SEGA mascots prancing around or tired old café logos whooshing their way across the screen at a uniform rate, whereas 16-color e-ink continues to trade refresh speed zippiness for a perfectly paperlike reflective surface combined with marathon endurance. I’d expect TCL’s battery life to be less onerous than for e-ink scribes in heavy use, however — given that LCD-panel devices drain power constantly (if lower than with screen refreshes).
Readability is a nuanced win. E-ink would still rule outside, but the Note A1’s matte and aggressive brightness both withstood demo-room torture (i.e., no rainbow sheen to be found). When it comes to annotation-heavy use cases, speed of pen response can be more important than absolute contrast. IDC analysts have pointed to increased interest in pen-first tablets for education and knowledge work, while E Ink noted rising e-note panel demand over the past few years — indicating that this category is broadening rather than converging into one formula.
Price, availability, and overall value proposition
At $549 for 256GB with the stylus included, TCL is threading a competitive needle. It’s a shot across the bow to 6-inch, high-end color e-ink models, promising a snappier experience and richer colors for documents. The trade-offs you already know: no app free-for-all, probably more diminutive runtimes than e-ink, and a pen that may feel lower quality. But for those who are students, researchers, or otherwise inhabit a PDF-and-meeting-notes life, the out-of-the-box tool set seems appropriately streamlined.
Early takeaway: a focused, pen-first note-taking slate
The Note A1 Nxtpaper tells the story, in writing. TCL got the pen-on-glass feel right and kept the software focused on the jobs that count. If the final retail units can get this demo’s latency right, and if the company gives added polish to stylus build, TCL’s got a legitimate alternative to Kindle Scribe that pushes speed and color in your face without overloading you with features you’re not going to use. For a note-first slate, that’s precisely the point of restraint.
